A loser and a long shot
It looks like snake eyes for an advertising campaign launched by Donald Trump to stave off casino competitor Steve Wynn.
New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman took exception to a radio ad about economic-development policy--placed by Mr. Trump--that mentioned the state’s school funding situation. Ms. Whitman asked Mr. Trump to pull the ad.
The ad campaign focused on a bill that would partially reimburse developers for the cost of cleaning up old landfills, an incentive that supporters say stands to benefit nearly 300 sites statewide. But the ad suggested that the state was willing to cut school funding while it gladly helped Mr. Wynn, who stands to get millions back for restoring the former Atlantic City dump where he plans to build a billion-dollar casino complex.
“The ad connected issues that were not related at all,” Becky Taylor, the governor’s press secretary, said. The cleanup bill is now on Gov. Whitman’s desk and she is likely to sign it.
Wanting to cut his losses, Mr. Trump obliged the governor’s request and had the ads pulled off the air.
Apparently, paying your dues only gets you so far.
The Utah Education Association decided last month to endorse a rookie Republican state legislator in the coming election even though her opponent appeared to have at least one impressive qualification: She’s a member of the union.
Trudy Henderson, a 27-year teacher and 17-year member of the UEA, failed to get the endorsement and modest financial backing of the union’s political-action committee.
Apparently she was hurt by the fact that her opponent, Rep. Susan Koehn, a housewife who was appointed to a vacant seat last year, is a favorite to win on Nov. 5. Ms. Henderson, a Democrat, is fighting an uphill battle in a district dominated by Republicans. And her odds only got worse when her own union abandoned her.
“I’m the one in the classroom every day teaching at-risk first graders,” lamented Ms. Henderson, who got a few hundred dollars in her bid for the office two years ago. “It really hurt my feelings.”
--ADRIENNE D. COLES & LONNIE HARP
